By Catherine Cuellar, KERA 90.1 Reporter
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-566912.mp3
Denton, TX –
Catherine Cuellar, 90.1 Reporter: The University of North Texas has the nation's only CyberCemetary - but founder Cathy Hartman says most of its websites came from Washington, D.C.
Cathy Hartman, CyberCemetary founder: It's dead federal agencies, and that's the whole point. That's the way we collect them is if the agency itself is dying. If it's a federal agency that's been de-funded and closing then they're included. If it's a commission that's finishing its work and closing then they're included.
Cuellar: For example, the audio, video, and full text of reports from the 9/11 commission
[audio, 9/11 commission's Thomas Kean: As Chairman of the Commission, I want to say that I consider this task the most important part of our work. We must not allow the people who were struck down to simply become statistics. Each represented a life that was interrupted.]
You could also check out the Columbia Accident Investigation Board.
[audio, Dr. William Ailor: The big brown tank you see over there is about a 575-pound stainless steel tank. It landed about 50 yards from a farmer's house here in Texas. He was not pleased.]
The websites are no longer live on U.S. government servers. UNT's Garrett Ermore shows where they've been virtually "laid to rest" in the library's basement.
Door opens
Garret Rumohr, UNT web server system administrator: We have four web servers that host the CyberCemetery. Compared to what you have at home, the CyberCemetery is fairly small. What makes a difference is everything is very redundant. We have lots of hard drives where we could have a hard drive failure and equipment failures and have no down time, be able to replace equipment without anyone really being able to tell.
Cuellar: Anyone can access the CyberCemetery. Most users Google it.
Rumohr: We don't restrict any access. All the websites are captured as best we can from the original form. So if the original had lots of data and was heavy on graphics, retrieval could be hard for users on dial-up, but we try to keep all the websites as close to original as possible. [fade nat sound]
Cuellar: That can be a problem for people who would like to see certain information disappear, Hartman says.
Hartman: We had a request from someone who testified at a hearing related to alternative medicines. It was announced in the federal register as a public hearing. The person who testified and later found their testimony on our site requested that it be removed for privacy issues. However our thinking on this is, you testified at a public hearing to influence federal policy. What you've done by going and testifying is give up your right to privacy so we refused to remove it and it's still there.
Cuellar: Last year the CyberCemetery affiliated with the National Archives. Hartman says that designation is important to keep all U.S. citizens aware of their government's work for all time.
Hartman: For 200 years they published on paper and we collected the paper. Now they're publishing online. It's time for us as libraries to begin collecting that information and keeping it for the future as well. The CyberCemetery materials are important because the people of the country have a right to continue to access information published by federal agencies and commissions. Historically it's very important that we're able to track what their recommendations are, how they affect policy in the future. The whole idea of a democracy is informed citizenship.
Cuellar: The most accessed websites include the one for former Vice President Al Gore's National Partnership for Reinventing Government and the now-defunct National Gambling Commission's impact study report. Reports on Hurricane Katrina and from the Iraq Study Group should be online by summer. For KERA 90.1, I'm Catherine Cuellar
More on the web: UNT Libraries: CyberCemetery Home